Is this good news ?

[wildcat]

I agree with Paul, the winds of change are blowing very hard right now. Are there funds available for change, whatever that change will be, no. Were there funds available for the financial bailout? No. Will the Obama & Daschle cabal make funds available for their cause. Yes.

What will the change eventually look like, no one knows. But one this is certain, health care / health insurance is a huge priority. I hope we can ultimately be a part of it!

 

[LGilmore]

"What will the change eventually look like, no one knows. But one this is certain, health care / health insurance is a huge priority. I hope we can ultimately be a part of it!"

I am betting on the easy out for them because of financing.

GI is the easy out along with government picking up the tab for the poor. That way, people will keep choice and the ones who don't want to be part of the mandate can buy the cheapest highest deductible out there (25k deductible anyone?) for a few dollars a month versus a 10-15% increase in taxes.

That way they can claim a victory for healthcare w/o having to deal with any of the healthcare cost drivers. They keep their campain promises which is healthcare for everyone. They do little to the current delivery system so for the most part, they're happy and there we go....

 

[Guest]

Here's a fitting quote I found:

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
-P.J. O'Rourke

 

[SportsNut]

Here's a fitting quote I found:

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
-P.J. O'Rourke

P.J. is one of my favorite authors...

Surly, salty and full of irony.

 

[bill3173]

"What will the change eventually look like, no one knows. But one this is certain, health care / health insurance is a huge priority. I hope we can ultimately be a part of it!"

I am betting on the easy out for them because of financing.

GI is the easy out along with government picking up the tab for the poor. That way, people will keep choice and the ones who don't want to be part of the mandate can buy the cheapest highest deductible out there (25k deductible anyone?) for a few dollars a month versus a 10-15% increase in taxes.

That way they can claim a victory for healthcare w/o having to deal with any of the healthcare cost drivers. They keep their campain promises which is healthcare for everyone. They do little to the current delivery system so for the most part, they're happy and there we go....

I make a motion that we accept LGilmore's Proposal.

Do I hear a second.

 

[Delta76]

From a producer stand point, I don't know what will happen. The one thing I know is that I can scrap better than most and I won't lose my skill of getting in front of people on a favorable basis. Worst comes to worst and I can't profitably sell health insurance, my skills will carry over to something else.

 

[LGilmore]

"I make a motion that we accept LGilmore's Proposal."

just wait and watch... people were telling me Hilliary would never accept Sec of State, when I was mentioning it a couple months ago.

the cost drivers aren't us (agents) or the insurance carriers.

the government will avoid addressing the cost drivers as long as possible because it would simply mean rationed care and restricted income occupations as it is elsewhere in the world.

Instead, they will give everyone guaranteed issue and annouce the problem solved. Think about it for a second, they can mandate and be done with it. Claim victory and move on. A politicans wet dream.

Universal government health care would require a major overhauling of about 20% of our workforce (insurance, medicine, hospitals etc...) that would take years maybe decades of hearings to put a plan together.

Cause it's one thing to demand the other guys change for the "good" (insurance carriers), it's entirely different when you (medicine, nursing, hospitals and people's habits etc..) have to change along with it. It's always been easy to blame the "other" guy as long as nobody took a real look at the issue.

Right now they are looking at the manufacturing aspect of american business and trying to figure out how to save it. Combine that and healthcare and you're revamping 60-70% of the structure of America..t'aint gonna happen. Too tall of a windmill....

 

[Delta76]

Cause it's one thing to demand the other guys change for the "good" (insurance carriers), it's entirely different when you (medicine, nursing, hospitals and people's habits etc..) have to change along with it. It's always been easy to blame the "other" guy as long as nobody took a real look at the issue.

You are absolutely right. I think too large a portion of our population are a bunch of sallies that expect every thing to be given to them. If people just worked about three times per week and were semi-conscious of what they are stuffing in their mouth that would solve the majority of the problem.

 

[ABC]

"Obama's health plan calls for a health insurance exchange, a sort of government-run shopping center where customers could go to select from private plans or a plan administered by the federal government. Any insurer that wants to participate in that exchange must accept all customers regardless of pre-existing health conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease."

What carrier is going to take this business?
It will bankrupt a carrier.

I remeber when American Community took on a ton of bad individual business in just 7 states and they lost almost all of their reserves and went to like a B-/C+ rating.

I got into the health insurance business right after Clinton did the GI in Kentucky. I wrote maybe 30 individuals that were moving out of KY into my state. On every one of them I reduced the premium by almost half. I look back and everyone was healthy or lied on the apps.

 

[retread]

"Obama's health plan calls for a health insurance exchange, a sort of government-run shopping center where customers could go to select from private plans or a plan administered by the federal government. Any insurer that wants to participate in that exchange must accept all customers regardless of pre-existing health conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease."

What carrier is going to take this business?
It will bankrupt a carrier.

I remeber when American Community took on a ton of bad individual business in just 7 states and they lost almost all of their reserves and went to like a B-/C+ rating.

I got into the health insurance business right after Clinton did the GI in Kentucky. I wrote maybe 30 individuals that were moving out of KY into my state. On every one of them I reduced the premium by almost half. I look back and everyone was healthy or lied on the apps.

I think you and several other posters to this thread are missing the BIG POINT, that IF everyone was made to carry insurance, then the pool of insureds would be a known risk. As it stands now WITHOUT mandated coverage for everyone, of course GI is punitive to carriers--- due to adverse selection. The healthy tend not to insure if it costs more than they think they can get away with by not having to pay a monthly premium. The sickly will use up every benefit to the max. Right now, about 80% of health care is consumed by only 5% of the population (don't quote me on this statistic, I can't remember exactly the percentages, but I think I am close)... but spread the risk over the whole population, and the Law of Large Numbers (which actuaries know and love) will bring down the cost per person per month (pppm).